
f H<3 




• « 

• 


• 

1 

t 

i 


i 

r - 

. * ' • - 

• 1 

• t 

( «••*.• 1 

i ■ ' ‘ 

T * 

. ; ■ ' i ' ■ 

•r’ ii 

' ' uv 

:. - '4' 

• 1 * f 1 « 





• f 

. ■ i 



• 



1 . « ( 

t ; i * 

’ * 


1 


' r i 

r > ■- 

/T 

!^.V 






Class P.Z3- 

Book 

Gopight}l?_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 

















WINNING HIM BACK 





* 

t 


0 


f ' 

I < 

I 

; • 

• < 


I 



J 


I 


























«r” 


Grace, 




Winning Him Back 


BY 

ANITA VIVANTI CHARTRES 

Author of The Hunt for Happiness'"'' 



1904 

THE SMART SET PUBLISHING CO. 


New York 


London 



PZ.3 


OONSRF3S 
TWO 00Vi98 

OCT 13 1904 

„<»oeyrl(rMEwrv 

5W.»v,/?^v 

OLM^S iX >^Xo. Na 
COPY B 


COPYRIGHTE D 

« 

0 

O' 

H 

b y 

ESS E 

S S 

PUBLISHING 

CO. 

COPYRIGHTED 

I q, o 4 , 

b y 

•UH^E SMART 

SET 

FCUfeLISHING 

• • 

CO. 


First Printing 
February 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

I. M:^nage. 13 

II. The Hoop-la. .... 27 

III. Winning Him Back. ... 45 

IV. In Quarantine. .... 57 

V. The Ruby Ring. ... 67 

VI. The Rose and The Ring. . 89 

VII. The Woman of the Bill of 

Fare. ..... 103 




PREFACE 


Here is no ponderous problem to be 
solved, no world-old question to be an- 
swered, no lofty purpose to be pursued — 
except the problem and question and pur- 
pose of amusing folk. In presenting Grace 
and Fifine and Tom and Reggie and some 
others, including the Brat, we trust that we 
introduce to the reader unwitting wearers 
of the cap and bells who are also human 
beings, even as you and I.’' And if these 
same unconscious children of the motley 
and kindred of yours and mine will but 
make an hour the lighter and the brighter 
for you — why, then we shall have suc- 
ceeded. 

Wherefore, you can safely wish success to 
us — to us of the cap and bells. For what 
man will not wish for his own amusement ? 






LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


^ Grace,'' - . - . 

Frontispiece N 

^ The Brat," ^ 

Page ig J 

‘ ^ My dear,, you must win 
hun back !' ” - - - 

Page 23 

‘ ^ Aha!' she cried, derisively, 
'‘prying, are you ? I'll 
tell Tom you are going 
through his pockets, ' " 

Page 3g J 

Fi fine hurried up and shot, 
Grace shrieked, and Fifine 
dropped the revolver," 

55 '^ 

'‘'‘By Jove!' said Mr, Wil- 
kins, ‘ another conquest !' " 

j 

Page 8g 


I 



Friendship is constant in all other things, 

Save in the office and affairs of love: 

Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues ; 
Let every eye negotiate for itself, 

And trust no agent. 

— Much Ado A bout Nothing. 



























WINNING HIM BACK 


CHAPTER I 

MENAGE 

“ Nothing ever happens,” said Grace. 
“ Things happen in newspapers and in Paris 
and in Conan Doyle, but not to one’s self; not 
when one has a decent income.” And she 
looked reproachfully at her husband, who was 
sipping his black coffee with a stolid and com- 
fortable countenance. 

“That is because you are married,” chirped 
Fifine, rolling her French r’s in her throat in 
a soft, pigeon-like way, as she dangled a 
cherry by its stalk, just above her pretty lips, 

[ 15] 


Winning Him Back 


and made little snaps at it. “ What can 
happen to one after that? — except in the 
modern plav and French novels. Whv did 
you do it? 

“ Ah, why did I ? ” sighed Grace, still look- 
ing at her husband, with her head on one side 
and an expression of wonder and self-com- 
miseration in her eyes; “ why did I? ” 

“ Because you were in love with me,” said 
Mr. Carrington, placidly. 

“ I believe I was,” said Grace, with an air 
of great surprise. 

“ So you are now,” said her husband, crack- 
ing a walnut; ” heels over head in love with 
me.” 

In the silence of utter amazement which 
followed, Fifine’s laughter trilled out, 
youngly, and the Brat, too, laughed. The 
[i6] 


Winning Him Back 


Brat — Grace’s sister — who was eight years 
old and wore her hair in two little, tight pig- 
tails, which were stiff and funny to look at, 
laughed, shrilly and long, out of pure light- 
ness of heart. 

Grace was very angry. She turned to the 
Brat, and said : 

“ Leave the room, miss.” 

“ But I haven’t done anything,” said the 
Brat, with that quick transition from wild 
laughter to whimpers so well known to the 
child soul. 

“I told you to leave the room,” said Grace, 
irrelevantly. 

The Brat got up, pushing her chair back 
with a great deal of noise, and turning her 
pigtails sulkily to the table. 

” I think it is a shame,” she said, when she 

[ 17 ] 


Winning Him Back 


got to the door. “ And all,” she added, with 
a loud sob, “ because I have no mother.” 
With this deadly parting shaft, she left the 
room, slamming the door behind her. 

A short silence followed. Then Mr. Car- 
rington laughed, loudly and heartily, and 
Fifine giggled ; but Grace was very stern. 

“ I do not see anything to laugh at. You 
made me treat the child cruelly. Now, if I 
go after her with some cake, she will be un- 
manageable for a week; and, if I leave her to 
cry her heart out, I shall feel like a 
murderess.” 

“ Let us compromise,” said Mr. Carring- 
ton. “ I will take her the cake.” He rose, 
and, taking many sweets with him, left the 
room. 

“ I hate him,” said Grace to Fifine. 

[i8] 



''The BratT 




















Winning Him Back 


“ Yes,” said Fifine, with quiet, downcast 
lids; “ of course.” 

“ Why ‘ of course ’ ? ” snapped Grace. 
“ I don’t see any ‘ of course ’, except that he is 
my husband and that it is bad form to care 
about one’s husband.” 

“ Yes,” said Fifine. 

“ And,” continued Grace, aggressively, 
“ for that matter, he is much nicer than the 
average husband — much nicer than any hus- 
band you are ever likely to get.” 

“ Yes,” said Fifine. 

“ He has curly hair, and he is twenty-seven, 
and his eyes are beautiful.” 

“ They are,” said Fifine. 

Grace shot a quick glance across at her 
friend. Then she smiled, and Fifine smiled. 
And they both got up and sat on a low, soft 

[19] 


Winning Him Back 

couch in a corner with their arms around each 
other’s waists. 

“ You darling! ” said Grace. 

“ You sweet I ” said Fifine, kissing her. 

“ I am very unhappy,” said Grace. 

“ I know you are, poor love,” said Fifine. 

“ You see how he treats me,” continued 
Grace; “how infamously he treats me! how 
he says just the things that make me miser- 
able ! Fancy his knowing that I am in love 
with him I Fancy his being so sure of it that 
he throws it into my very face ! ” 

“ It is serious,” said the little French girl. 
“ What has made him so sure of you ? Have 
you told him that you love him — actually 
told him?” 

“ Occasionally,” admitted Grace. 

“ Occasionally ! ” sneered her friend, 

[ 20 ] 


Winning Him Back 


“Do you mean often? Yes, you do mean 
often. Grand Dieu! ” — and she took Grace 
by the shoulders and peered into her face — 
“ I believe you are always telling him so ; 
always telling him that you love him, and not 
leaving him anything to guess at or to tremble 
about. Ah, fatal 1 fatal 1 ” 

And Fifine’s little hands slipped, helpless 
and bejeweled, into her lap. 

Grace looked guilty and miserable. “ I 

have tried to be a good wife ” she began, 

meekly. 

But Fifine interrupted her, starting up from 
her seat and walking about, with rustling 
skirts and foreign gestures. 

“ ‘ Good ’ ! ‘ good ’ ! You always were 
‘ good ’. In school. Grade, we used to call 
you ‘ Gracious Goodness ’ for short ; well, not 
[ 21 ] 


Winning Him Back 


for short. But anyhow,” she added, vaguely, 
“ if you haven’t learned enough to know that 
men don’t want good wives, you ought to 
go back to school again.” 

“ How do you know so much about what 
men want? You’re not married,” said 
Grace, crossly. 

“ That’s why I know all about it,” quoth 
Fifine, and Grace did not dare to argue. 

“ What shall I do ? ” she said, weakly. 

“ My dear, you must win him back 1 ” 

“ Win him back! ” gasped Grace. “Why, 
that is dreadful.” 

“Not at all, not at all. It is exciting; it 
is great fun,” said Fifine, nodding. 

“ But I mean,” said Grace, “ it is dreadful 
that one should have to do it.” 

“ One always has to win a man back after 
[ 22 ] 



'My dear, you must win him back !' ” 























Winning Him Back 


one has married him,” said Fifine. “ Men 
are built that way.” 

Grace sat pensive, raising troubled eye- 
brows. “Win — him — back! It is not,” 
she mused, “ that I dislike the idea; it sounds 
interesting. But how does one do it? ” 

“ Gracie,” said Fifine, with glowing eyes 
and hand uplifted, “ you must do it by keep- 
ing up the Houp-la." 

“ The what? ” exclaimed Grace. 

“ The Houp-la," whispered Fifine, mys- 
teriously. 

“ Hush ! ” she added, as Mr. Carrington’s 
voice was heard outside. “ I will tell you 
later on.” 

Grace sat still, looking bewildered and 
sweet, as her husband came in, holding the 
Brat by the hand. The Brat immediately 

[ 23 ] 


Winning Him Back 


pretended to cry, and tried to look small and 
shrunken and pathetic. 

“ Here is a good little girl,” began Mr. 
Carrington, at which touching description of 
herself the Brat set up a loud and sudden 
wail ; “ a good little girl, who is coming to be 
forgiven. Ask pardon, youngster,” he said 
to the forlorn little figure by his side, and took 
his hand away from her. 

The Brat went up to Grace, slowly, with 
her toes turned in, sobbing a little and rub- 
bing her eyes with a fist that held some candy. 

“ Please forgive me,” she mumbled. 

Grace took hold of the warm little wrist. 

“ Will you never do it again? ” she asked, 
earnestly. 

“ Do what again? ” said the Brat. 

There was silence. Grace had forgotten 

[24] 


Winning Him Back 


what the Brat had done. Mr. Carrington 
coughed and looked out of the window, and 
Fifine turned her face away. 

“Do what again?” repeated the Brat, 
scenting her advantage and making the most 
of it. 

“ I don’t know,” said Grace, guiltily. 
“ But, whatever it was, don’t do it again.” 

At which the Brat giggled, because she had 
a sense of humor. And Grace laughed as 
she kissed the little, sticky face. 


[25] 

















CHAPTER II 


THE HOUP-LA 

At noon the following day, FIfine, pink 
and buoyant, looking like a rose slightly 
powdered with veloutine, entered Grace’s 
boudoir, with rustling skirts and trailing per- 
fumes. 

“ Bonjour, ma mie! ” 

“ Well,” said Grace, dejectedly, “ I have 
been trying to keep up the Houp-la, but as I 
don’t know what It is, I do not suppose I have 
done it.” 

Fifine laughed. She kissed Grace lightly 
on the top of the head, and sat down in an 
armchair, unpinning her little fly-away bon- 
[ 27 J 


Winning Him Back 


net and opening the ruffles around her 
throat. 

“ My dear Grade,” she said, “ did it ever 
occur to, you that no one at school ever spoke 
about my mother ? ” 

“ Bong Dew! ” exclaimed Grace, moved to 
French by this exordium. 

Fifine continued : 

“No; everybody spoke about the Count de 
La Corderie, my father, but we always 
skipped or skimmed over the countess, my 
mother. That Is because she was a circus 
girl, a dear little circus girl, with fluffy skirts, 
who perched on the backs of fat, white horses, 
and leaped through paper rings, and jabbed 
the clown’s face with her jeweled riding-whip. 
She was very pretty and very clever and very 
funny; and, although she was the kind of 

[28] 


Winning Him Back 


mother people would call ‘ undesirable I 
wish, oh, I wish ” — and there was a break in 
the little pigeon-like voice — “ that she were 
not dead ! ” 

“ Bong Dew! ” said Grace once more, 
deeply moved. 

“ Grace, if you say that again, I shall hit 
you,” said Fifine. “ It is dreadful; it is not 
French.” 

“ Very well,” said Grace. “ Go on, dear.” 

“The count, my father, fell in love with 
her because of the funny little way in which 
she used to cry- ^ Houp-la' ]ust before turning 
a somersault on the galloping horse, or while 
she leaped through the paper rings. She had 
a treble voice like a child’s, and my father 
used to say that it went right through him and 
made his heart leap into his throat, every time 

[29] 


Winning Him Back 


he heard the little, shrill cry. After she was 
married, she never allowed him to fall out of 
love with her. And she told me she did it — 
by ‘ keeping up the Houf-la 

“ But what did she mean ? ” began Grace. 

“ My dear, she meant a number of things, 
of vague and subtle things, difficult to name. 
‘ The Hoiip-la' she used to say to me, ‘ is to 
married life what the sparkle is to champagne; 
nothing definite — empty air, indeed — but how 
essential! Always, Fifine, my child, when 
you have a husband, remember to keep up 
the Houp-la.' ” 

“ I suppose it is all very lucid to you,” 
sighed Grace ; “ but I do not see anything that 
applies to me, or to Tom. And Tom was 
perfectly heartless this morning as he went 
out,” she continued. “ When I looked out 

[30] 


Winning Him Back 


of the window after him, he only just turned 
around once to wave his hand — and not when 
he got to the corner! ” 

“ Now, then,” said Fifine, folding her 
hands in a businesslike way, “ to-morrow do 
not go to the window at all. If he mentions 
the fact, say, laughing sweetly : ‘ Dear 1 dear 1 
did I forget? How careless of me! ’ And 
be light and sunny and nonchalant. And 
henceforward, ma cherie, keep a little shadow 
of mystery drawn over your soul, and let 
your eyes be dreamy under drooping lids. 
Trail about the rooms in clinging gowns and 
undefined perfumes. Adopt fads; insist 
upon having your rooms filled with gardenias, 
when they are out of season; faint away at 
the sight of a certain shade of mauve. Then, 
spring surprises upon him. Be sudden; be 

[31 ] 


Winning Him Back 


extraordinary; be unexpected. Do things! 
Pack up a powder-puff and a silk petticoat, 
and let him find you with a cab at the door, 
going away forever! Take poison one day. 
Be shot at by a frenzied lover the next. 
Adore him with the passion of a Spanish 
tigress to-day; ignore his existence to-morrow. 
All this, with a few other things, my dear 
Gracie, is what I call keeping up the Houp- 
la." 

“ It sounds dreadfully wearing,” sighed 
Grace. 

“ Oh, well, of course, if you are satis- 
fied to be like every other wretched 
wife, do it in your own way,” said Fifine, 
rising. 

“ No, no ! Don’t go away,” cried Grace. 
Then, clasping her hands, she said: “ But are 

[32] 


Winning Him Back 


you sure? — sure that this is the right way 
to — to win him back? It sounds so agitat- 
ing! I thought that by being gentle and 
sweet-tempered and loving, that by being 

always the same to him ” 

“You miserable!” cried Fifine, wildly, 
“ don’t you know that a man never wants 
sameness ? Why, you must be different every 
time he sees you ! ” 

“Are you sure? ” repeated Grace. 

“Sure? Of course, I am sure. Have I 
not tried it on Reginald? Have I not tried 
everything on Reginald?” 

“Who is Reginald?” asked Grace, be- 
wildered, sitting down again. 

“ My dear, I have not told you,” said 
Fifine, dabbing her face carefully with a little 
powder-puff taken from her pocket, “ because 
[33 ] 


Winning Him Back 


things are still a little — uncertain. He is an 
Englishman, you know; and Englishmen 
never know their own minds.” 

” Don’t they ? ” said Grace. 

“ No, they don’t,” snapped Fifine. “ And, 
if you are going to contradict me, I might as 
well go home.” 

“ Oh, Fifine, I did not contradict you. 
Kiss me! And I love you!” Kiss! “And 
you are sweet ! ” Kiss, kiss, kiss ! “ And 

you are so exciting and interesting ! ” 

Fifine was mollified. “ Well, I was telling 
you about Reginald. My dear, he is an 
angel! A tall, gentlemanly angel, with a 
tawny mustache and a drawl like a hero in 
one of ‘ The Duchess’s ’ novels. He pro- 
nounces his r’s like w’s and is always 
‘ dweadfully bored ’, because he is so supe- 

[34] 


Winning Him Back 


rior, you know, and he writes things, 
essays and things, on something I ” she ended, 
hazily. 

“ How nice ! ” said Grace, propltiat- 
ingly. 

“ Well, my dear, you should see me keep- 
ing up the Houp-la with Reginald ! And that 
is nothing to what I shall do when I have 
married him. I shall not be one of those 
benighted Anglo-Saxon wives, who still be- 
lieve in being good to their husbands, and I 
shall manage him In French, not in English. 
I shall be strange, I shall be unwholesome, 
I shall be unexpected, I shall be impossible. 
And he will adore me.” 

“ Oh, Fifine, to think that you are engaged, 
and that you have never told me 1 ” exclaimed 
Grace. 


[35] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Well, I am not exactly engaged. I — 
he is one of those slow, stolid Englishmen, 
who take a year or two to make up their 
minds about a thing ” 

“ Perhaps, darling,” Grace ventured, ten- 
tatively, “ with a man like that, a little less 
Houp-la ” 

Fifine cast a glance of withering scorn at 
her friend. “ We will not speak about him 
any more,” she said. 

And no amount of coaxing, or luncheon, or 
delicate flattery, would move her. 

“ I will help you with your affairs, Grace, 
if you wish me to, but I will manage mine in 
my own way.” 

So they returned to Mr. Carrington and his 
misdeeds. Fifine decided that the first thing 
to do was to look through all his pockets. 

[36] 


Winning Him Back 


This they did, methodically and thoroughly, 
Grace getting “ a turn ” every time her hand 
found a folded paper. 

“ I feel very mean,” she said, as she put 
back into a coat-pocket a bill for a diamond 
heart and chain that he had given her on her 
last birthday. “ These clothes look so — so 
helpless, you know, poor things; ” and, when 
Fifine was not looking, she kissed an old 
brown coat as she hung it up. Fifine was 
sniffing at a silk handkerchief, and held it out 
to Grace. 

“ Is this your perfume? ” 

“ Yes,” said Grace. 

“ Oh, all right,” said Fifine, rather ag- 
grieved. 

They were sitting on the hearth-rug, turn- 
ing Tom’s evening-suit pockets inside out, 

[37] 


Winning Him Back 


when the door opened stealthily, and the Brat 
put her head in. 

“ Aha ! ” she cried, derisively, “ prying, 
are you? I’ll tell Tom that you are going 
through his pockets. Prying 1 ” 

“ Brat, darling, come here,” said Grace, 
with a bland smile. “ I have something to 
show you.” 

The Brat stuck out a pink and rigid tongue. 

“ Well, then, you shall not see it,” 
and Grace hid one closed hand behind her 
back. 

“What is it, anyhow?” asked the Brat, 
and came forward. 

“ Bend down and you shall see,” said 
Grace, and the Brat bent down. 

Grace grasped one of the pigtails and 
pulled it hard. The Brat shrieked, loudly. 

[38] 



‘AhaT she cried, derisively, ‘prying, are you? Fll tell Tom 
that you are going through his pockets/ ” 


















Winning Him Back 


“ Promise you won’t tell? Swear that you 
won’t? Never? Honor bright? ” 

“ Honor bright ! ” squealed the child, and 
Grace released her. Making a horrible face 
at them both, the Brat left the room, 

“ She will tell,” whispered Grace. But 
Fifine, with many winks and nods, pointing to 
the open door, spoke in a loud voice as 
follows : 

“ Have you noticed, Grace, how pretty that 
child is growing ? She really has such beauti- 
ful, beautiful eyes ! ” Then she was con- 
vulsed with silent laughter. 

” Yes,” Grace answered, as soon as she 
could control her voice, “ and she is such a 
dear, noble child, too,” Wild and soundless 
mirth on the part of Fifine. “ You know,” 
continued Grace, at the top of her voice, 

[39] 


Winning Him Back 


“ she has such a sense of honor ! She will 
never tell ; she has promised us that she won’t, 
and she always, always keeps her word.” 

“ I don’t think! ” remarked the Brat, leer- 
ing evilly around the open door. “ And, if 
you have any more soft soap for me, why 
don’t you call me in and give it to me, instead 
of shouting it at me through the door? ” 

The Brat had to be propitiated with candy 
and a promise to be shown anything interest- 
ing that might be found in Tom’s pockets. 

Something was found, but it was not shown 
to the Brat. It was a thing which Fifine, 
with her very throaty French r’s, called a 
“ p-r-roof,” and Grace’s gentle head was bent 
over it with many tears. A bill of fare, a 
French bill of fare, full of naughty things to 
eat and drink — for two ! 

[40] 


Winning Him Back 


“ But might he not have been with another 
man? ” Grace had ventured, hesitantly. 

“Nonsense, Gracie!” said Fifine. “Don’t 
you know there is the greatest difference in the 
world between a man’s bill of fare and a 
woman’s? Look at this,” and she ran over 
the incriminating list. “ Would two men 
have ordered such a collection of dreadful 
things — Martini cocktails, caviare, hmtres, 
bisque d’ecrevisses, foie gras au trufes, 
homard au diable — my dear, my dear, this is 
a most immoral bill of fare. There was a 
woman here, I tell you — a woman! And,” 
she added, mysteriously, '“ probably a 
blonde.” 

There was a fresh burst of indignation 
from Grace. 

“Come, come! We must face it,” said 

[41] 


Winning Him Back 


Fifine, with a comfortable sense of heroism. 
“Now, when was it? There is no date 
here — when was he in Paris ? ” 

“We were there twice,” sobbed Grace. 

“ Once on our h-h-honeymoon and once 

Fifine ! ” she cried, suddenly, “ you don’t 
think that, while we were actually on our 
h-honeymoon, he was taking creatures — 
blonde creatures — to dinner? ” 

“ No,” said Fifine, looking wise; “ I don’t 
think so. It must have been the other time.” 

“That was last summer. Oh, Toml 
Tom! Tom!” 

“ Grade, my poor darling,” cooed Fifine, 
“ I am desolated for you. Now, forget 
everything except that you have to win him 
back.” 

Grace would have preferred leaving him 

[42] 


Winning Him Back 


forever, but Fifine, who knew life and under- 
stood men, pointed out that he then would 
surely go back to the woman of the bill of 
fare. 

So Grace decided that she would stay with 
him and win him back. 


[43] 



CHAPTER HI 


WINNING HIM BACK 

Little did Mr. Carrington know what 
was going on in his household, in the days that 
followed. 

Grace had resolved that she would be a 
stranger to him, and adopted that attitude 
immediately on the day of the discovery of 
the bill of fare. But he came home in a very 
good humor, and did all the talking himself, 
and never even noticed that she was being a 
stranger to him. 

This was aggravated by the fact that he 
told two funny stories at table, and she 
laughed at them, because she could not help it. 
[ 45 ] 


Winning Him Back 


She left off being a stranger to him, and 
determined to be dreamy, morbid, and un- 
wholesome. So she filled the house with un- 
defined perfume and tried to faint at certain 
shades of mauve. 

When Tom came into the atmosphere red- 
olent of pastilles, foin coupe, bergamot, and 
ylang ylang, he said, lighting his cigar, hur- 
riedly, “ Phew I You have had those 
wretched old maids, the Harrisons, up here 
again for tea. I smell them.” And, before 
Grace could answer, “ It is a sure sign of 
middle-aged hysteria, this soaking one’s self 
in odors. Open up, Gracie, and let us have 
some fresh air.” 

With Fifine, Grace practiced fainting until 
she ached all over; and they determined that 
[46] 


Winning Him Back 


she should be found already “ fainted,” when 
Tom came in. 

The certain shades of mauve were some 
dress samples of crepe de chine, which she 
had her tailor send to her on approval. 
They were lying loose on the table, and 
she arranged herself limply on the floor 
when she heard Tom’s key in the door down- 
stairs. 

But the Brat, who had been peeping, came 
in and tickled her until she shrieked; so she 
had to get up and race around the table in 
order to catch and slap the Brat. 

“ I don’t know what to do,” she said, de- 
jectedly, to Fifine, who called next day to hear 
results. “ I don’t seem to have done any- 
thing. He certainly has not noticed any- 

[47] 


Winning Him Back 


thing, and I don’t seem to have won him back 
a bit.” 

“ Will you try to poison yourself? ” asked 
Fifine, cheerily. “ You don’t really take any- 
thing, of course. You lie in a darkened room 
and are very pale, with an empty bottle of 
arsenic tossed on the floor beside you.” 

“ I cannot be pale when I want to,” said 
Grace, pettishly. 

“ Oh, silly ! ” said Fifine. “ Lanoline, and 
powder over it — that sticks and is beautiful.” 

Grace was unconvinced. “ And then, 
oughtn’t I to show signs of sickness?” she 
said. 

So they set aside the poisoning. 

“ I have done all these things successfully 
with Reginald,” remarked Fifine, “ because, 

[48] 


Winning Him Back 


you see, he does not live in the house. He 
just comes in and sees me; he is terribly 
moved and shaken ; and then I wave my hand 
weakly, and say, ‘ Go ! go ! go ! ’ as I fall 
back, unconscious. And he goes.” 

“ I dare say he is very glad to go,” said 
Grace, whose temper had been soured by 
recent failures. 

This occasioned a coolness, but they soon 
made friends again, and returned to their 
plans. 

“ You must be shot at by a frenzied lover,” 
said Fifine. “ That is infallible. You will 
see.” 

Grace was skeptical and inclined to 
scoff. 

“ You first take an old bodice,” explained 
Fifine, “ the bodice of a dress that you don’t 

[49] 


Winning Him Back 


care about. And you shoot it through the 
sleeve. See ? ” 

“ No, I don’t see,” said Grace. 

“ Then,” said Fifine, warming to her sub- 
ject, “ you take a piece of mustard-plaster or 
porous-plastei — which do you prefer, porous- 
plaster or mustard-plaster ? ” 

“ 1 don’t care,” sighed Grace. 

“ Well, you put the piece of mustard- 
plaster, cut long, on your arm. When you 
take it off again the skin is sore and red, and 
there is where the bullet grazed past youl 
Do you understand now? Oh, that is very 
French, very exciting.” 

Grace shrugged her shoulders. 

“Of course,” continued Fifine; “you re- 
fuse to divulge the man’s name. But you 
will see how excited and anxious and adoring 

[50] 


Winning Him Back 


your Tom will be. On his knees, he will im- 
plore you to tell the wretch’s name — that he 
may kill him I ” 

Grace was touched. 

“ I will do it,” she said, reluctantly. 
“ But it is against my better judgment.” 

They found an old black bodice, and they 
took Tom’s revolver from his writing-table, 
and went down into the yard to do the shoot- 
ing. The housemaid was up-stairs, out of 
hearing, the laundry was empty, and Grace 
sent Kate, the cook, out on a hurried errand. 

They were alone with the bodice and the 
revolver. Fifine proposed that Grace should 
hold the garment — well away from herself — 
while she, Fifine, shot at the sleeve. Grace 
refused, and suggested laying the bodice on 
the lawn and shooting down on it. 

[51] 


Winning Him Back 


“ I don’t quite know what a bullet will 
do,” said Fifine; “ it might jump back at us, 
if we shoot on the ground.” 

Finally, they pinned the bodice to the 
wooden fence that separated their yard from 
the neighbor’s, and fastened the left sleeve 
straight out against the boards. 

“ Now, Grace, you stand just a little away, 
and shoot at it,” said Fifine. 

“No, dear,” said Grace; “you do it — 
I know you want to.” 

“ I can’t shoot, unless I hold my ears,” said 
Fifine. “ I hate the noise so ! ” 

“ Well, you shoot,” said Grace, “ and I’ll 
hold your ears.” 

And so it was arranged. After a great deal 
of stepping nearer to and farther from the 
wall, with Grace holding her hands over 

[52] 


Winning Him Back 


Fifine’s ears, they decided on three paces away 
from the fence. 

“ Don’t hold my ears so tight,” said Fifine. 
Grace loosened her hold. 

“ Oh, now I can hear everything,” said 
Fifine, impatiently. “Hold tighter!” 

“ How pale you are ! ” said Grace, bending 
forward and looking at her. 

“ So are you,” snapped Fifine. 

“ Goodness I Here’s the cook coming 
back! ” said Grace. “ Hurry up and shoot.” 

Fifine hurried up and shot. Grace 
shrieked, and Fifine dropped the revolver. 
They never knew how it happened that the 
yard was suddenly full of people, and that 
there were two policemen holding the cook, 
who was struggling and shouting and kicking. 
The negro servant from the other side of the 

[53 ] 


Winning Him Back 


fence had come in, and was accusing the cook 
of already having tried to murder her three 
or four times by throwing poison and carbolic 
acid over the fence at her, all of which the 
cook convulsively denied. 

Grace said she would explain to the police- 
man, and there was a profound silence while 
she explained. She said that it was not the 
cook, but Fifine, who had done the shooting, 
and that it was really on account of her 
(Grace’s) husband that it had all occurred, 
because in order to win him back 

At this point the policeman took hold of 
Grace with one hand and of Fifine with the 
other, and said to the policeman who was 
holding the cook: “ Bring them all along to 
the police-station.” 

Only by Fifine’s great presence of mind 

[54] 



'TiUne hurried up and shot. Grace shrieked, and Fidne dropped 
the revolver.'^ 























Winning Him Back 


were they saved. She was small and in- 
genuous, as she looked up at the officer who 
held her, and deliberately winked at him. 
She said softly: “ Take us into the house, and 
I’ll explain — satisfactorily.” With her free 
hand she had dived into her pocket for a 
purse that she now held carelessly before her, 
and it was fat and full. 

They were taken inside, and the policemen 
got forty dollars and went away, after having 
told the fair culprits to behave themselves in 
the future. 

The two girls wept hysterically in each 
other’s arms, and the cook left without notice, 
after getting very drunk and abusive. 

Grace and F'inne went down, late in the 
afternoon, and unpinned the bodice from the 
fence. 


Winning Him Back 


“Did you hit it?” said Grace, as Fifine 
examined the garment. 

“ No,” said Fifine; “ but the bullet did go 
through the fence, so it wasn’t such a bad 
shot after all.” 


[S6] 


CHAPTER IV 


IN QUARANTINE 

Dearest Fifine : 

Do not come to the house. Poor, sweet 
Brat has the measles. We are very unhappy, 
and I am exceedingly anxious. She is so 
good and gentle that I am afraid she is going 
to die. Oh, if she were to die I And I have 
so often been unkind to her ! She talks about 
her mother in a low, weak voice ; and as poor, 
dear mama died when she was only four 
months old, she — the Brat, I mean — cannot 
really remember her, and I am dreadfully 
afraid that it may be a call, or a sign. 

I wept bitterly and begged her not to ; and 
I was greatly comforted when she asked me 

[57] 


Winning Him Back 


whether I would give her my diamond sun- 
burst, because it showed that she was still 
taking an interest in earthly things. Of 
course, I shall not give her the sunburst. 

Tom is most unkind. When I asked him 
to sit in the dark room and hold her hand 
while I had dinner, and to come down after- 
ward and have dinner by himself, he said, 
“ Bosh ! ” and other cruel things. Besides, 
Fifine, I have reason to believe that the 
Woman of the Bill of Fare is living in his 
office-building, down-town! What reason, 
you will ask? Listen! He said yesterday 
that he was going back to his office in the 
evening, to make up some arrears of work. 
It immediately flashed upon me that it was 
that creature, and that the office and the 
arrears were a blind. So I followed him, 

[58] 


Winning Him Back 


closely veiled, in a cab. He went down in a 
car, and, my dear, he did go to the office ! Of 
course, she lives there and is near him all day. 
I am unspeakably miserable ! 

What is good for mucilage in the hair? 
The poor, darling Brat has been arranging 
her scrap-book, and had the gum-bottle on 
her pillow. When I came in, she sank back 
exhausted, and all the gum poured out on her 
head. She looks dreadful. We dare not 
have her shampooed. She is very sweet 
about it, and does not seem to care, poor little 
angel, but she frequently asks me to kiss her 
on her forehead, and, what with the measles 
and the mucilage, it is very unpleasant for me. 

My love to you, dearest, and my kind re- 
gards to your dear father. 


[59] 


Grace. 


Winning Him Back 


My darling Gracie: 

I should say alcohol. How dreadful about 
the creature in the office ! I should go down 
and see her and speak to her. Make yourself 
very pretty. You might put on a little rouge, 
and the large, white hat. If she is there, you 
can crush her. If your suspicions are un- 
founded, it will delight your husband to see 
you — men love a ray of sunshine in their 
dingy, dreary offices, in the midst of a hard 
day’s work. When I marry Reginald, I shall 
always go to his office, rustling in in 
airy toilettes and being a ray of sunshine to 
him. 

Do not fret about the measles. I had 
diphtheria once, which is much worse. 

Your loving 


[6o] 


Fifine. 


Winning Him Back 


My dear Fifine; 

I wish you had not told me about the ray of 
sunshine, and I wish I had not put on the 
large, white hat. Besides, that rouge looked 
dreadful in the daylight. I saw myself in a 
glass on the elevated train, and I looked 
positively purple. I have been very much 
insulted down-town. When I told the clerk 
in the outer office that I wished to see Mr. 
Carrington, he grinned and said the gentle- 
man was busy. When I told him I was his 
wife, he said something that sounded like 
“ nit,” and a horrid little boy, sitting in a 
corner, laughed. He finally blew through a 
tube, and said : 

“ A lady wants to see you ; ” and in answer 
to something inaudible, said: “I don’t know.” 

Tom came out in his shirt-sleeves, and 

[6i] 


Winning Him Back 


seemed quite startled when he saw me, and 
asked me what on earth had happened. I 
could have sworn he had the creature inside 
his private office, and I asked him who was 
with him. “ Why, a couple of lawyers and 
another man,” he said, crossly. I did not 
believe him. I insisted upon seeing for my- 
self. I pushed past him and quickly went 
into the inner room. Some horrid men that 
were there stared most impertinently, and 
when I went out again I heard them laugh. 
Tom was exceedingly rude, and I swept out 
of the place much ruffled. I did not feel as 
if I had been a ray of sunshine. Then a man 
in the elevator stepped on my dress and tore a 
large piece of the frilling off. I had to pin 
it up in the hall down-stairs, which was 
crowded with men, and two tough young fel- 
[62] 


Winning Him Back 


lows made remarks about my petticoats and 
my shoes, and also about my hat. They 
said, “Where did you get that hat?” to a 
tune of some kind. I reached home very sick 
and upset, and so far forgot myself as to 
speak rudely to the poor, sick child, when she 
asked for some marsh-mallows for her throat. 
She wept, and has spoken about mother again. 
I wish we were all dead. 

Grace. 


Dear Fifine : 

You might have written to me. As soon 
as the Brat is well, or rather is tired of pre- 
tending to be sick, for she is shamming most 
of the time, I shall leave Tom forever. All 
is over between us. 

To-day, Sunday, after he had been reading 

[63] 


Winning Him Back 


his vulgar newspapers all the morning, I said 
bitterly I shall go out for a walk.” 

He said: “ All right, dear! ” 

I went to the door, and said: “ Good-bye.” 
Do you know what he answered? He 
answered : 

“ Good-bye.” Actually ! 

I said: “ You are very insulting.” 

He said: “Why?” and seemed quite as- 
tonished. 

I said : “ When a woman stands at the door 
and says good-bye, she does not mean you to 
answer good-bye. She means you to exclaim : 

‘ No, don’t go ! ’ ” Then I burst into tears. 

My dear, he took me in his arms and 
kissed me, but he was laughing ! He laughed 
and laughed, long and loud, in his vulgar, 
horrid way; so I came up-stairs to write to you 

[64] 


Winning Him Back 


and tell you that all is over between Tom and 
myself. He does not love me, and everybody 
knows that marriage without love is immoral. - 
I shall go and live with Aunt Eugenia — the 
one you see here sometimes, with those awful 
bonnets. Or, I could give lessons — young 
women alone in the world always give lessons. 

I hear Tom coming up-stairs. He will be 
sorry — very sorry — when he is left alone with 
the Brat, who has such horrid manners at 
table and always eats more than is good for 
her. 

Poor Tom! Poor Bratl How unhappy 
they will be ! 

Good-bye! good-bye! 

Your miserable 

Grace. 


[65] 



CHAPTER V 


THE RUBY RING 

“This is my last suggestion,” said Fifine, 
who had hurried around to see her friend. 
“ I lay awake all night, thinking it out — it is 
perfect! What you want is to make him 
jealous, is it not? ” 

“ I do not know what I want,” said Grace, 
“ nor why I want it, nor how I am going to 
get it.” 

“ Oh, that is only a frame of mind,” said 
Fifine, cheerfully. “ Now listen to me. This 
Is a great idea, and, by carrying it out care- 
fully, you are, at last, sure to win him back.” 

“ Any deaths, or policemen, or being rays 
of sunshine in it? ” asked Grace. 

[67] 


Winning Him Back 


“ No, dear,” replied Fifine. “ It is sim- 
ply this. In order to make Tom jeal- 
ous, you must have another man who 
adores you. If he adores you, he sends 
you presents, flowers, letters, jewels. Well, 
you get a man to send you a price- 
less gem ” 

“ Fifine,” said Grace, “ I have not a man 
who will send me a priceless gem.” 

“ Of course not,” said Fifine. “ But this 
is what you do. You go to a jeweler; you 
select a ring ; you pay and take it on approval. 
Then you send it to yourself, with a bunch of 
flowers and a love-letter. Your husband finds 
all. He makes a scene of jealousy. You win 
him back. Then you return the ring to the 
jeweler, who refunds you the money. There 
you are 1 ” 


[ 68 ] 


Winning Him Back 


Grace was thoughtful for a few moments. 
Then she said: 

“ I think this is the best thing you have hit 
on yet.” 

And Fifine replied, happily : 

“ I do not know what can have been the 
matter with me that I did not think of it 
before.” 

They discussed the details. Grace had 
sixty dollars, and Fifine knew a jeweler, not 
far off. They went out, hurriedly. 

“ I should like to do it to-day,” said Grace. 
“ Tom was particularly hard and uncon- 
cerned this morning. He ate a huge break- 
fast. I think it is so heartless of a man to eat 
a great deal ! And how he sleeps ! He goes 
to sleep on the slightest provocation. I can- 
not leave him alone, or not speak to him for 

[69] 


Winning Him Back 


ten minutes, without being sure that he goes 
to sleep.” 

‘‘That is horrid,” said Fifine; and they 
walked a little faster. 

At the jeweler’s, Fifine asked a pale young 
man for Mr. Rosenstein, and Mr. Rosenstein 
came from the back of the store, rubbing 
suave hands and smiling engaging smiles. 

To him Fifine explained: 

“ We wish to look at some rings — hand- 
some rings — what one would call priceless 
gems.” 

‘‘ It must not cost more than sixty dollars,” 
added Grace; but Rosenstein’s benign head 
was turned away, and his obliging back was 
bent over the show-cases in the window. 

“You are inclined to be swayed by phrases, 
Fifine,” said Grace to her friend; “phrases 

[70] 


Winning Him Back 


one reads in novels, such as ‘ a priceless gem 
and ‘ being a stranger ’ to a person, and being 
‘ a ray of sunshine ’, and all that. It is really 
very misleading and never turns out right.” 

But Rosenstein had returned, and was 
showing them a diamond ring at two thousand 
dollars, an emerald ring at eighteen hundred 
dollars, and a pearl-and-diamond ring at only 
four hundred dollars. 

“We want something cheaper,” said 
Grace ; “ much cheaper.” 

He looked at the two ladies a moment, then 
went to the end of the store and brought back 
a ring — some small diamonds around a large 
ruby. 

“ That’s pretty,” said Fifine. 

“And what a wonderful ruby,” said Grace; 
“ so dark and rich ! ’* 


Winning Him Back 


“ Vahnderful ! I should say,” agreed 
Rosenstein, with a smile that brought his nose 
down over his teeth and made his beard stick 
out. 

“ How much? ” said Grace. 

“ Only two hahndred and feefty dahlars,” 
said Rosenstein. 

But Fifine turned to Grace : 

“ Laisse-moi faire.'" Then, turning to 
Rosenstein: “Nonsense, Mr. Rosenstein. 
You ask two hundred and fifty, but you 
mean two, and you would take a hundred 
and fifty, and you are going to get a hun- 
dred. Of which we will give you sixty on 
account.” 

“ Ach ! vaht a vahnderful calculator 1 ” ex- 
claimed Rosenstein, clasping ecstatic hands. 
“Vaht a beesiness voman! Vaht I gif 

I 72] 


Winning Him Back 


to haf such a beesiness voman in my beesi- 
ness ! ” 

But Fifine was unmoved by flattery, and re- 
fused to give more than a hundred dollars for 
the ring. 

“ Ach, mein Gott! ” cried Rosenstein, 
shrilly; “ dat ruby alone is vorth two hahn- 
dred dahlars ! ” 

However, when Fifine had walked twice to 
the door, and Grace had spoken in a stage- 
whisper about going back to see that other 
ring they showed in the other store, Rosen- 
stein, with a chastened countenance, put the 
ring into a little blue-velvet box, and accepted 
the sixty dollars on account. 

He took Grace’s address and her promise 
to pay the forty dollars, or return the ring, 
the next morning. The two friends went 

[73] 


Winning Him Back 


home in a pleasant flutter of excitement, the 
ring reposing in Fifine’s little black-velvet 
reticule. 

“Oh, we forgot the flowers!” exclaimed 
FIfine. 

“ And we have barely time to write the 
letter before Tom gets home,” added Grace. 

“ I’ll run and order the flowers. Hold my 
satchel,” said Fifine, handing her the little 
bag. “ The ring is In it. You go up-stairs 
and write the letter yourself; and don’t be 
afraid of making it passionate,” she added. 

“Oh, Fifine! What shall I say? It 
seems so silly to write to one’s self.” 

“ Say, ‘ My adored Grade, this little ruby 
ring Is only a wretched token — ’ and that kind 
of thing, you know. And mind you disguise 
your handwriting, and don’t use your own 

[74] 


Winning Him Back 


letter-paper. And you might sign it, ‘ Your 
Slave,’ which is appropriate and vague.” 

Fifine was gone, in a flutter of light skirts 
and buoyant curls. 

Grace entered her house, carrying the 
satchel with the ring in it, nervously, and re- 
peating to herself, “ My adored Grade, this 
little ruby ring is only a wretched token — this 
wretched ruby ring is only a little token ” 

In her desk she found some plain letter- 
paper, and used it all up in writing, “ My 
adored Gracie,” in different handwritings on 
every sheet. Thoroughly disheartened, she 
determined to wait for Fifine. Meanwhile, 
she opened the little bag, and took the ring 
out. In the bag there were some other 
things, which she peeped at — a dainty, jeweled 
scent-bottle, two prescriptions for hair-washes, 

[75] 


Winning Him Back 


and a visiting-card, which she had not time to 
read, as she hurriedly stuffed the things back 
just before Fifine came in. 

“ Now help me to write this letter,” she 
said, taking the large bunch of roses from 
Fifine and kissing her on the cheek. 

But Fifine was desolated.” “ Ma toute 
cherie, I have an appointment with Reginald 
to take afternoon tea at Rector’s at four, and 
it is now nearly half-past five. He is certainly 
waiting for me — I have trained him well — 
but I never like to make him wait more than 
an hour and forty minutes! ” 

With many parting recommendations, on 
the landing, as to the wording of the letter 
and the attitude to adopt in regard to Tom’s 
scene of jealousy, Fifine left. 

Grace returned to the sitting-room, uneasy 

[76] 


Winning Him Back 


and excited. She saw a visiting-card lying on 
the floor, and picked it up. “ Mr. R. B. 
Wilkins, 22 Madison Square,” she mused. 
“ I wonder who he is. I must have stolen 
this from Fifine. Well,” and she tossed the 
card upon the table, “ I don’t suppose she will 
miss it. And now for this horrible love- 
letter.” 

But she did not write it. The soft after- 
noon light shone in through the windows, 
warmed to pink and cooled again into light, 
gentle gray; and she still sat before the sheets 
of note-paper with, “ My adored Gracie,” 
scrawled on them, staring at the large bunch 
of roses and the little case with the ring. 

“ I cannot do it! ” she exclaimed at last, 
crumpling up the sheets. “ It is an insane 
French notion of Fifine’s I ” And, hearing 

[77] 


Winning Him Back 


Tom’s footsteps on the stairs, she hurriedly 
threw the papers away, and turned to face her 
husband, with a sweet, open smile. 

He kissed her, and glanced over her fair 
head at the table. 

“ Whom are the flowers from? ” he asked, 
patting her cheek. 

“ From — from Fifine,” said Grace. 

“Why, what makes her send you flowers?” 
said Tom, lightly, taking the roses up and 
smelling them. The little case lay blue and 
conspicuous on the table. Grace flushed 
scarlet. 

“ She did not send them,” she stammered; 
“ she — she went out for them ; I mean, she 
brought them — ^yes,” ended Grace, suddenly 
finding her husband’s eyes fixed inquiringly on 
her. 


[78] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Why, Grace I What are you blushing 
about? ” asked Tom. 

“ I’m not,” said Grace, with a stiff smile. 

“ You look as if you were trying to tell a 
fib.” 

Grace laughed, nervously, and backed away 
toward the table. She stood between it and 
Tom, looking up at her husband, with a petri- 
fied and propitiating smile. 

“What on earth are you doing?” he asked. 
“ What is the matter? ” And, as she did not 
answer immediately, he forced her to one side, 
and looked at the table. 

Grace’s hand shot out toward the little 
blue box, but Tom caught her wrist, and 
held it. 

» Why, what ? ” 

“ Oh, don’t,” said Grace, wildly, clutching 

[79] 


Winning Him Back 


at the box; “ don’t. I am not ready yet — I 
mean — oh, you’re hurting my hand I ” 

Tom let her hand go at once, and opened 
the jewel-case. 

“ The deuce 1 ” he said. “ Whose is this ? 
Fifine’s?” 

“ No,” said Grace, promptly. 

“Yours?” 

Grace nodded, carelessly. She was unpre- 
pared, and did not know what to say. 

“Indeed!” said her husband. “New, 
isn’t it?” 

“ Yes,” said Grace. Then she added 
precipitately: “Why, no; I have had it ever 
so long.” 

“Have you?” said Tom again, and he 
was rather pale about the nose and lips. 

“ Gracie,” he continued, after a moment, 

[80] 


Winning Him Back 


“what are you telling me falsehoods for? 
Did you buy the thing? ” 

“ I ! ” exclaimed Grace, and swallowed 
twice, with dry lips; “buy it! Why, how 
silly! Why should I buy it? ” 

“ I did not suppose you did,” said Tom. 
“ Who gave it to you ? ” He asked the 
question very quietly, not looking at her. 

“Nobody; really, Tom — nobody at all. 
I— I ” 

She stopped, following Tom’s gaze, which 
was resting on a little card, lying face down- 
ward on the table. She saw him take the 
card and read it. Then he raised his eyes, 
dark with anger and astonishment, to hers. 

“ Who is this ? ” he said. “ Who is R. B. 
Wilkins?” 

“ I don’t know,” said Grace. 

[8i] 


Winning Him Back 


“ You don’t know? ” cried Tom, stepping 
close to her; “you don’t know? Here is a 
man who sends you flowers and jewelry, with 
his card, and you say you don’t know him ! ” 

Like lightning, it flashed upon Grace that 
she was doing it I actually doing it I She was 
in the midst of it, before she had known that 
it had begun. She was winning him back; 
she was keeping up the Houp-la. Everything 
was as it should be ; and this was the scene of 
jealousy. The faintest of smiles crept over 
her face. 

“Will you answer me?” said Tom. 
“ What are you laughing at ? Who is this 
Wilkins, and how does he dare to send you a 
ring? ” 

He was very near to her, and his voice was 
harsh and hoarse. 


[82] 


Winning Him Back 


“Oh, don’t, Tom I don’t 1 You frighten 
me,” she said. 

“Will you answer me?” he cried. 
“ Where have you met this man? ” 

“ Nowhere 1 nowhere 1 I don’t know him,” 
she said, weakly. 

Her husband put his hands into his 
pockets. 

“ Ah, you don’t know him I ” he observed, 
sarcastically. “ At least, you will admit 
having seen him ? ” 

She felt that she must admit this, if she was 
to keep up the fiction at all; so she said that 
she had seen him — just seen him. 

“Ah, you have! How often?” inquired 
her husband, blandly. 

She said, hesitatingly, “ Once or twice.” 

“Ah, once or twice! And will you tell 

[83] 


Winning Him Back 


me, madame,” roared Tom, “ how you ac- 
count for your conduct in allowing a man 
whom you have seen once or twice to make 
you presents of jewelry? ” 

She could not account for it. 

She had to answer innumerable questions, 
and she had to answer them quickly, before 
she had made up her mind what to say. 

Had this man been to the house? — to his, 
Tom’s, house, sneaking around when he was 
out? No, he had not. She swore it; she 
went on her knees and swore it, and began to 
feel very frightened. 

Where had she met him? When had she 
spoken to him? Never! She had never 
spoken to him I She ha d just happened to — 
to — to — to see him. Where had she seen 
him? She did not know; she could not re- 

[84] 


Winning Him Back 


member. Out — just in the street — she meant 
just by chance, looking out of the window. 

So Tom came to the conclusion that she had 
been conducting a vulgar flirtation from the 
window, and, declaring that she ought to be 
ashamed of herself, he went out to tell Mr. 
Wilkins, of 22 Madison Square, what he 
thought of him. 

When Grace heard the door close, she flew 
down-stairs, and called him back. 

“Oh, Tom, don’t,” she cried; “you must 
not. It is all nonsense ! ” And then, hys- 
terically, between laughter and tears, she 
added: “Why, the man does not know me; 
he does not even know who I am.” 

“ Do you mean to say,” cried Tom, 
angrily, “ that the fellow does not know you 
are my wife ? ” 


[85] 


Winning Him Back 


“No, no! ” cried Grace, wildly; “he has 
not the faintest idea of it.” 

“ Well, the sooner he finds out, the better,” 
said Tom, as he re-entered the house, slammed 
the door, and went up-stairs. 

Grace sat down limply in the hall, and 
thought things over. She could imagine 
Fifine, under the circumstances, going up- 
stairs and putting on an appropriate gown — 
something snaky and sinuous; doing her hair 
mysteriously in heavy bandeaux d la Paul Ver- 
laine, or Duse, or Maeterlinck, or something 
— Grace’s ideas were somewhat vague. 

So she went up-stairs to dress for the part 
of the wicked, but beautiful, deceiver. 

Meanwhile, her husband was in the sitting- 
room, packing up the ring and the flowers in 


[ 86 ] 


Winning Him Back 


a piece of newspaper, to send back to Mr. 
Wilkins. 

“ Damn Mr. Wilkins I ” he was saying to 
himself, as he put one of his wife’s visiting- 
cards into the parcel. “ Confound his cheek 1 
I’ll let him know that Mrs. Thomas Carring- 
ton does not accept presents from him. I’ll 
teach this damned Wilkins a lesson I ” 

He gave the parcel to a servant, with in- 
structions to take it to 22 Madison Square, 
and leave it there — no answer. 

Then he went down to dinner, somewhat 
relieved. He was not cross to Grace. She 
looked very pretty in a startling gown and 
strange coiffure, with contrastingly timid be- 
havior. He was amazed by what had oc- 
curred, but he thought it best not to be cross 
to her. 


[87] 


Winning Him Back 


Meanwhile,, at 22 Madison Square, Mr. 
R. B. Wilkins came in, and found a parcel 
waiting for him. It contained a lady’s visit- 
ing-card, some flowers, and a ring. 

“ By Jove ! ” said Mr. Wilkins, “ another 
conquest! I wonder what she is like. I’ll 
go and call on her this evening.” 


[ 88 ] 


K. 



“ ‘By Jove !’ said Mr. Wilkins, 


‘another conquest!’ ” 















CHAPTER VI 


THE ROSE AND THE RING 

He went. Tall and impeccable, in laven- 
der kid gloves, the duplicate crescent of his 
golden mustache divinely arcuated, he pre- 
sented himself and his visiting-card at Mr. 
Carrington’s house that evening, at half-past 
eight o’clock. 

Mr. Carrington had gone out to his club, 
“ for an hour.” Mrs. Carrington was in the 
Brat’s room, listening to the Brat’s prayers. 
The Brat was very particular about her 
prayers. She prayed for many things and 
people — for all the governesses she had ever 
had; for all the dogs and cats and canaries 

[89] 


Winning Him Back 


she had ever owned ; for people she met in the 
street, and for people she heard other people 
talk about. And, when she was particularly 
religious and aggravating, she prayed for 
every one of her school-teachers and school- 
mates, calling them by name and making 
things last very long indeed. 

She insisted that Grace should remain on 
her knees during the entire function and say 
amen at the end of every prayer. 

“ And please God bless Emily Jones, and 
Katie Jones, and Mary Riker, and Madge 
Van Orden, and the other little Van Orden 
girl, whose name I have forgotten, but who 
has red hair, and Baby Griggs, and Cecily 
Martin, even though she did draw the man in 
the moon smoking a pipe on my copy-book 
which I had to show to Miss Courtney, and 

[90] 


Winning Him Back 


she said that if I ever had the audacity to 
present such a copy-book again ” 

“ Go on with your prayers,” said Grace, 
from her knees near the bed, raising a flushed 
face from her hands, “ and don’t be irrele- 
vant.” 

“ Amen,” quickly said the Brat, who 
wanted to lie down and think out something 
horrible to do to Cecily Martin. 

“ Amen,” said Grace, rising from her 
knees, and bending over to kiss the child. 

Collins, the house-maid, appeared at the 
door with a card in her hand. “ A gentleman 
to see you, ma’am; Mr. Wilkins, if you 
please.” 

Grace stood aghast for a moment. Then, 
with a little gasp of relief, she told Collins to 
let him wait in the drawing-room. She 

[91 ] 


Winning Him Back 


hastened to her room, and glanced at herself 
in the long mirror. She was sorry that she 
had the snaky dress and the symbolistic 
coiffure; but, as she really did look very pretty 
and odd, she determined not to make any 
change. She would glide into the presence 
of Mr. Wilkins, and, pale but composed, get 
the ring back from him, telling him quietly 
that it had been sent by mistake. 

She got as far as the gliding in, but she was 
neither pale nor composed when the gentle- 
man in the drawing-room, after staring at her 
with bated breath and an expression of 
ineffable tenderness and admiration; stepped 
forward with both hands outstretched, and 
uttered : 

“ Ah, beauteous one ! ” 

Grace was thunderstruck. “ Are — ar^— 

[92 ] 


Winning Him Back 


you Mr. Wilkins ? ” she stammered, with a 
very red face. 

“ Oh, will you not call me Weggie? ” said 
the gentleman, moving close to her and grasp- 
ing one of her hands. As he did so, Grace 
in the mirror caught sight of Collins, passing 
through the hall and glancing into the room. 

“Merciful Heavens!” she faltered, as 
she dragged her hand from Mr. Wilkins’s 
clasp. 

But he was undeterred. He took her 
hand again, and, bending down close to her 
face, asked her not to “ shwink ” from him, 
and insisted upon her sitting down on the sofa 
and telling him how it all came about. 

She said “ Sir 1 ” repeatedly and in- 
dignantly, but he paid not the slightest atten- 
tion, and was very gentle and firm, saying: 

[93] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Nevah mind ! I understand. I will not 
huwwy you,” until she felt that she was going 
to be hysterical. 

So they sat on the sofa, and Mr. Wilkins 
held her hand, and asked her questions. 

“Tell me all,” he said; “tell it to me in 
your own way.” 

But he did not give her a chance to say any- 
thing, for he continued : “ Shall I help you to 
tell me? Was it not my last volume of 
poems, ‘ The Laurel and the Wose ’, that 
cwept into your heart and made it thwob for 
me? Was it not?” 

Grace, speechless and infuriated, tried to 
wriggle her hand away from his. “ Sir 1 ” 
she began again. 

“ S-sh ! ” he said, with maddening gentle- 
ness. “ Don’t, dearwest ! Not the poems, 

[94] 


Winning Him Back 


you say? Then you were at my last lecture, 
‘ On the Fastidiousness of Beauty and the 
Beauty of Fastidiousness ’ ! Ah,” and he 
cast his handsome eyes up to the ceiling, “ I 
felt that I was penetwating the sensitive soul 
of Woman that day I I felt it 1 ” 

“ Will you please,” began Grace, swallow- 
ing a lump in her throat, “ will you please — I 
shall ring the bell,” she ended, faintly. 

“What a shwinking sweet!” said Mr. 
Wilkins, laying his disengaged hand over 
hers. And there, on his little finger, shone 
Rosenstein’s ruby ring. 

“ That ring I ” burst out Grace. “ I want 
that ring back 1 ” 

Mr. Wilkins raised deep, reproachful eyes 
to hers. 

“Nevah!” he exclaimed in a low voice; 

[95] 


Winning Him Back 


“ nevah ! I tweasure this token, this unmis- 
takable token of your affection, as I tweasure 
my life. Your woses I cawwy here,” and he 
unfastened his coat, showing two crumpled 
roses, from the bunch that Fifine had 
bought, pinned to his waistcoat. “This 
little wuby wing I shall wear until bweath 
ceases ! ” 

Grace looked at him with hatred growing 
large and bitter in her heart. This man, this 
horrible man, who sat near her, holding her 
hand, wearing her ring, not letting her speak, 
insisting that she loved him, was costing her 
sixty dollars and to-morrow would cost her 
forty dollars more. She would have to pay 
Rosenstein those forty dollars, and she would 
have made a present of a ring to this insult- 
ing, this insufferable person ! 

[96] 


Winning Him Back 


She wrenched her hand away, and, in an 
agony of mortification, with the tears starting 
to her eyes, cried : “ You sha’n’t ! I want the 
ring back. I don’t know you. I don’t want 
to know you ! I am miserable and 
ashamed I ” 

Here she burst into tears, and stood, small 
and pathetic, in her snaky dress and symbo- 
listic coiffure, before him. 

He was touched. He stood up and put 
his hand around her shoulders, in a kindly 
and consoling manner. 

“ You funny little girl,” he said, “ you 
mustn’t cwy. I understand you; I under- 
stand you so well! These things are always 
happening to me, always ! ” And he paused, 
gazing at her with benevolent compassion. 
“ I know how you feel about it. You did it 

[973 


Winning Him Back 


under the impulse of iwesistible emotion, and 
now that I am here you feel shy and unhappy. 
But you will get over that. Believe me, 
sweet one, that I am deeply appwecia- 
tive, and that I would not wound your 
twembling heart for worlds — not for 
worlds! ” 

Quivering and indignant, Grace drew her- 
self up. 

“ My husband, sir,” she began, “ I have a 
husband who ” 

“ I know, I know. You need not explain,” 
interrupted Mr. Wilkins. “ The old stowyl 
I have seen so much of it! Husband, how- 
wid old bwute, I suppose, neglects charming 
wife. Charming wife weads my poems, sees 
me, hears me speak to the tendewest fibers 
of her delicate soul, is impwessed, is pene- 

[98] 


Winning Him Back 


twated, is thwilled ! — sends me a wosc 
and a wuby wing — ^what could be pwettier, 
what could be sweeter, what could be ten- 
dewer ? ” 

“ Go away 1 go away ! ” cried Grace. 
“ Don’t speak to me any more; go away I ” 
And she rang the bell, 

“ I will wespect your wishes,” said Mr. 
Wilkins, with gentle gravity; “ I understand 
you.” And, taking his perfect cane and his 
irreproachable hat, he bowed over her hand, 
and kissed it. 

“ I — I will write and explain,” said Grace, 
feeling suddenly in the wrong. 

“ I know you will wite,” said the gentle- 
man, as he went toward the door. “ My 
shwinking little bird, farewell. Fear noth- 
ing ; I shall see you to-morrow.” 

[99] 


LofC. 


Winning Him Back 


Collins, rigid and correct, with proper, 
downcast eyelids, stood in the hall, and 
showed the gentleman out. 

“ Collins ! My cloak and hat — quick 1 ” 
gasped Grace. 

Collins did not answer. 

“ Did you hear me? ” cried Grace. 

“ Yes, ma’am,” said Collins, with thin com- 
pressed lips and acid looks, as she went up- 
stairs. 

Grace took a cab, and drove to Fifine’s 
house. Fifine came out of her bedroom, with 
loosened hair and many exclamations of sur- 
prise. 

“ I was just going to bed, dear,” she said. 
“ What has happened? ” 

“ Fifine,” panted Grace, “ you know a man 
called Wilkins? — a conceited, horrible, inso- 
[ 100 ] 


Winning Him Back 


lent puppy — an unspeakably impertinent and 
idiotic creature I ” 

“ You will kindly leave the house,” said 
Fifine, with flashing eyes. 

“What?” exclaimed Grace. 

“ Leave this house,” repeated Fifine. 
“ Go away at once, and never speak to me 
again ! ” 

“ Why, what have I done ? ” sobbed Grace, 
utterly broken. “What is it? What have 
I said?” 

“ You know what you have said,” cried 
Fifine, shrilly; “ and am I to stand here and 
listen to you? and let you vituperate Regi- 
nald, my Reginald? Go away, and never 
come here again ! ” 

Drooping and dejected, Grace let herself 
[ loi ] 


Winning Him Back 


into the house, and as she was about to go up- 
stairs, she heard Collins talking to the cook 
and the scullery-maid in the hall below. 

“Yes,” said Collins; “he was a blarsted 
Englishman. And they sat in the drawing- 
room all night, holding hands.” 

“ Nonsense,” said the cook. 

“ You don’t say,” said the scullery-maid. 

“ Then she cried and carried on awful,” 
continued Collins, “ until he promised that 
he’d come again to-morrow, and told her she 
might write to him every day.” 

“ Disgustin’ ! ” said the cook. 

“Sickenin’!” said the scullery-maid. 


[ 102 ] 


CHAPTER VII 


THE WOMAN OF THE BILL OF FARE 

Grace arose next morning, a wreck. A 
rapid mental review of the situation made her 
groan and cover her face with her hands. 
Tom was frigid to her; the servants despised 
her; Fifine had quarreled with her; Wilkins 
had made love to her — Wilkins was 
Reginald ; she owed forty dollars to 
Rosenstein ; and nobody would listen to 
any explanations. 

Even if they had listened, she would not 
have known how to begin to explain. 

She had to explain things to everybody. 
How could she tell Fifine that “ her Regi- 

[ 103 ] 


Winning Him Back 


nald ” had held her hands all the evening and 
called her “ shwinking sweet,” and “ bird,” 
and things, without arousing Fifine’s horrid 
French temper, which — she remembered from 
their schooldays — always meant a great deal 
of clawing and scratching and screaming? — 
let alone having to explain how she had 
rummaged through Fifine’s satchel, and used 
her friend’s visiting-cards for her own pur- 
poses. 

How was she to explain to Tom that she 
had told any number of falsehoods, about 
seeing Wilkins from the window, and all 
that? — let alone the humiliation of having to 
confess that nobody had sent her jewels, or 
flowers, or anything. 

How was she to explain to the servants that 
it really did not mean anything, if she had sat 
[ 104] 


Winning Him Back 


in the drawing-room and wept, with a strange 
man’s arms around her shoulders ? 

So she sat down and wished everybody were 
dead. 

Tom, who had had a hurried and uncom- 
fortable breakfast, alone with the Brat — she 
had spilt everything over the tablecloth and 
had been generally unpleasant — found Grace 
sitting dejectedly in her dressing-room, and, 
being a large, comfortable man, his heart 
smote him. 

“ What’s the matter, Gracie ? ” he asked, 
although he knew, or thought he knew, 
exactly what the matter was. She was peni- 
tent. She was longing to weep in his arms, 
to tell him that she had never in her heart 
wronged him, or cared for Wilkins. 

Grace raised a pale face and said: 

[ los ] 


Winning Him Back 


“ I want forty dollars.” 

“ Oh 1 ” said Tom, icily; and, with harden- 
ing countenance, he put the money on the 
table and left the room. 

“ Brute ! ” sobbed Grace. “ Why did he 
not ask me what I wanted it for? I should 
have told him everything.” 

Unable to bear the strain any longer, she 
ran down-stairs, to call him back. But he had 
left the house; and, after weeping fifteen 
minutes at the window, Grace went up to her 
room again. 

The money was gone. On the table lay a 
penciled note from the Brat. 

“ I have taken the money to take to school 
to show to Cecily Martin to make her sick. 
She thinks her old pa has all the money in the 
[ io6 ] 


Winning Him Back 


world — she is so vulgar! I shall bring it 
home all right, except for some marsh- 
mallows. 

Your affectionate sister.” 

Grace fell on her bed, and laughed the 
laugh of despair and of hysterics. Then she 
dressed and sat down to await events. 

ff 

The first event was Wilkins, who arrived 
with a large box of Maillard’s bon-bons, and 
insisted on sitting down-stairs in the drawing- 
room and waiting for her. 

She said to herself : “ I will tell him all, and 
get the ring back.” So she was going down, 
when she heard Rosenstein’s voice in the hall 
below. 

“Mrs. Carrington? I must see her at 
vunce — on beesiness.” 

[ 107 ] 


Winning Him Back 


She heard Collins showing him into the 
drawing-room, and her heart beat faster as 
she faltered down the stairs. She was on the 
second landing, when she heard a key in the 
hall door, and, stopping, saw her husband 
come in. She thought he looked angry and 
suspicious. 

Collins was loitering about the hall. “ Oh, 
sir, I was just going up-stairs to tell ma- 
dame that the gentleman was here,” she 
said. 

“What gentleman?” inquired Mr. Car- 
rington. 

“ The gentleman what was here with 
madame all last evening,” remarked the maid, 
with prim, pinched lips ; “ a Mr. Wilkins, as I 
believe, sir.” 

Tom turned and went straight to the draw- 
[ io8] 


Winning Him Back 


ing-room. Grace leaned against the banis- 
ters, and felt faint. 

On entering the room, Tom was con- 
fronted with Rosenstein’s engaging bow and 
plausible beard. Wilkins remained seated on 
the sofa, holding the box of candy. 

“ I vished to see Mrs. Carrington,” said 
Rosenstein, quickly; “I vished to see her, 
particularly.” 

“ What for? ” asked Tom. 

“ Oh, a leetle private matter,” said Rosen- 
stein. ‘‘ She hat from me a ring yesterday, a 
ruby ring.” 

“Oh, you gave her the ring, did you?” 
said Tom, putting his hands in his pockets. 

“ I tit,” said Rosenstein. 

Tom looked him up and down with unut- 
terable scorn. “ Well, Mr. Wilkins,” he 
[ 109 ] 


Winning Him Back 


said — there was a slight perturbation on the 
sofa — “ you got your ring back — and I am 
the lady’s husband 1 ” 

Tom expected this declaration to produce 
a startling effect, but he was unprepared for 
the wild anger and amazement that spread 
over his interlocutor’s countenance. 

“ Vaht? vaht? ” stuttered Rosenstein. “ I 
care not whose huspant you are. I got dat 
ring back, vaht you say? And vaht is Vil- 
kins? eh, vaht? Gott im Himmell ” 

“ I say, Mr. Wilkins, that you are a cad 
and a blackguard, and that I am going to 
break your head.” 

Mr. Wilkins arose from the sofa. “ I beg 
your pardon,” he said. “ I think there is 
some mistake.” 

“Vaht mistake?” blustered Rosenstein. 
[ no] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Dis man try to cheat me. He ant his wife 
are tiefs. He call me Vilkins, and try to 
cheat me. There is the voman ! there 1 ” 
And Rosenstein pointed a bony and awful 
finger at the door, where Grace had appeared, 
and stood white and trembling. 

“Silence!” roared Tom, and turned to 
Grace. “ Is this the man you got the ring 
from, madame ? ” 

“ Does she deny, does she dare to deny, 
it?” questioned Rosenstein of his gods, wildly 
wringing his hands. 

“Is this Wilkins?” continued Tom. 
“ Answer me,” 

“No,” faltered Grace; and Wilkins took 
another step forward. 

“ Will you allow me ? ” he said, with raised 
hand. 


[Ill] 


Winning Him Back 


Rosenstein uttered a shrill cry, and pointed 
to Wilkins’ finger. “ Dere’s de ring ! dere’s 
my ruby ring, vaht you owe me de balance on, 
and vaht you say you returned, you many 
tiefsl” 

A moment of dead silence followed, as 
Tom’s astonished eyes rested on Wilkins’ 
little finger. 

“Where did you get that from?” he asked; 
“ and what are you doing here ? Who are 
you?” 

“ My name — er — is Wilkins — er — and 
I ” 

“ Stop ! ” shouted Tom. “ Then who is 
this? ” and he pointed to Rosenstein, who was 
pulling quickly at his beard, in a frenzy of 
excitement. 

“Oh, Tom, dear! Tom!” cried Grace. 
[ II2] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Wait a minute — let me explain. We are so 
mixed up ! ” 

“ You mix yourselfs up because you are 
tiefs, dat’s vaht 1 ” exclaimed Rosenstein. 
“ You vant to steal de ring,” 

“What is he talking about?” said Tom. 
“ Who is he ? What are all these men doing 
in my house ? Who gave you that ring, sir? ” 
he said, turning angrily on Wilkins. 

“ Well— er ” said Wilkins, “ I— er— 

wegwet to say that — er — this lady pwesented 
it to me. If,” he added, with an increased 
drawl, and twirling his large mustache, “ if 
this is a badgeah game you are playing on me, 
how much do you want, and let us have done 
with it ! ” 

Tom was dumfounded. Rosenstein, who 
had never left off talking, here raised his voice 

[ 113 ] 


Winning Him Back 


again: “ You tiefs, dis is all a put-up jop to 
steal from me my ruby ring. I haf you all 
arrested.” 

The bell had rung, and Collins had shown 
in Fifine, who remained standing just within 
the door, listening, without any one of the 
excited party in the drawing-room having 
noticed her. 

But Rosenstein’s eager eye now lighted on 
Fifine, and he cried : 

“ Dere is de oder vomen, de oder crook, 
de oder tief ! ” 

At these words Tom made a plunge 
forward, and seized Rosenstein by the 
collar. 

“What do you mean?” he said, shaking 
him what do you mean ? ” > 

“ I mean dat I haf you all arrested,” 

[ 114] 


Winning Him Back 


croaked Rosenstein, “ for stealing my goots 
and detaining my person vile I miss a sale. 
Gott im Hinimel, I miss a sale ! ” he added, 
wildly, wringing his hands. 

“ What do you want? ” roared Tom. 

“ I vahnt my ring back, or de balance of de 
money, dat’s vaht I vahnt,” he replied. 

” Oh, Tom I pay him,” sobbed Grace; “ it 
is only forty dollars.” 

“ Tree hahndred and feefty dahlars,” 
shouted Rosenstein ; “ not one cent less, or I 
haf you all arrested. You, madame,” he said 
to Grace, “ for gifing avay my goots, and you 
all for keeping stolen goots, and for violence 
to my person.” 

“Is this your wing?” asked Wilkins, 
slowly awal: ning to the fact. “ Why, take 
it— and get out ! ” 

[115] 


Winning Him Back 


He threw the ring on the table. Rosen- 
stein seized it, and held it up against the light. 
Then he placed it on the table again. 

“ I refuse,” he said. “ I haf missed de sale. 
And, besides ” — a wicked grin crept over his 
face, his eyes gleamed, and his nose curved 
down over his mouth — “ you haf changed de 
stone.” 

“ What 1 ” cried Grace and Wilkins to- 
gether. 

“ Dat’s vaht I say; you haf changed de 
stone,” quoth Rosenstein, smiling com- 
placently. “ Dat’s no ruby; dat’s a piece of 
glass. Tree hahndred and feefty dahlars, or 
you all go to jail.” 

In vain did Grace mention the sixty dollars 
paid on account. Tom’s indignant demands 
for enlightenment were unheeded; and, while 
[ii6] 


Winning Him Back 


Fifine talked to everybody in excited French, 
Mr. Wilkins bought the ring for three hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. 

“ You haf a bargain,” said the jeweler, as 
he folded the check and put it away in a 
greasy pocket-book; “ a bargain, I say. De 
ruby alone — vaht? ” 

“ Get out,” said Wilkins. 

Rosenstein hurried to the door. There he 
turned around, and, showing all his teeth, 
“ De ruby alone,” he said, “ as a vahnderful 

imitation, is vorth ” but Wilkins put him 

outside, and shut the door. 

When Wilkins turned around, Fifine was 
holding out to him his hat in one hand and the 
box of bon-bons in the other. Tom was 
speaking to Grace in a low voice, near the 
window. 

[ 117 ] 


Winning Him Back 


“ Is this yours? ” Fifine asked, holding up 
the box of sweets. 

“ No, deahwest, it is yours,” said Reginald. 
“ And so is this, if you will do me the honor,” 
and he slipped the ruby ring on her finger. 

Fifine laughed. Then she tucked her arm 
under his, and walked him out of the room. 

“ But we have not said good-bye,” Regi- 
nald suggested. 

“ Never mind; we can say good-bye when 
we come back,” said she. 

“ Well, my deah Fifine, I — ^er — should like 
to make a clean bweast of something,” said 
Reginald, when they were in the street. “ I 
like making clean bweasts of things, don’t you 
know.” 

“ You angel ! ” said Fifine ; “ you nice, 
English angel. Go ahead 1 ” 

[ii8] 


Winning Him Back 


And he went ahead. 

And she went with him, arm in arm — for 
all time. 

In Mr. Carrington’s house that afternoon, 
there were explanations. 

“ I hope, dear,” said Tom, “ that you will 
not win me back any more. It upsets things 
sol” 

“ Oh, Tom I Tom I It was all the fault 
of the Woman of the Bill of Fare.” 

“ Of the who? ” said Tom, with his hand 
to his head. 

Grace went to her room, and fetched the 
piece accusation. 

“ This — this is an immoral bill of fare,” 
she sobbed. “ Fifine said so.” 

And while Tom looked at it she continued : 

[ 119 ] 


Winning Him Back 


“ To think that, when you were in Paris 
last time, you should have been so bad, so — 
so — improper 1 ” 

“ It was not last time; it was the time be- 
fore,” said Tom. 

“ What ! ” cried Grace, “ on our h-honey- 
moon trip ? ” 

“Yes, dear,” said her husband. “The 
second day, I believe.” 

“ Oh, Tom ! ” said Grace. 

“ A most immoral,” began Tom, “ a most 

improper ” but his wife’s hand was over 

his mouth, and he could do nothing but kiss it. 

She had laid her pretty, flushing face on 
his shoulder, and her arms were about his 
neck, when, raising her eyes, she saw the Brat 
standing in the doorway. The Brat was not 
jeering or making faces at her, so she knew 
[ 120 ] 


Winning Him Back 


that something must be wrong, even before 
she noticed that the Brat’s face was scratched 
and tear-stained. 

“What is it, Brat, darling?” she asked, 
leaving her husband, and going to meet the 
child. 

“ Here’s the change,” said the Brat, 
drearily, holding out a two-dollar bill and 
four cents, in a very dirty hand, “ from the 
forty dollars.” 

“ Gracious ! ” said her sister. “ What 
have you done with the rest? ” 

The Brat bellowed. 

“ Cecily Martin got it,” she howled ; “ and 
three dollars’ worth of marshmallows, and 
two nigger dolls, and all the other things 
I bought, and all the money — and every- 
thing.” 


[ I2I ] 


Winning Him Back 


She screamed very loudly, and would not 
be comforted. 

“ Never mind, darling,” said Grace; ‘‘you 
shall have a lot more of everything. Don’t 
cry. 

‘‘ No, don’t cry,” said Tom. 

They had a very happy dinner. 

‘‘ I bet that Martin girl was sick, all the 
same,” said the Brat. ‘‘ And I did pull out 
a lot of her hideous hair,” she added, taking a 
small paper parcel out of the front of her 
dress. ‘‘ Here it is 1 ” 


FINIS 


Baroness von Ibutten 


ARABY 

This is a strange story of great charm; 
it is as realistic as romantic, and it con- 
veys in crisp dialogue and movement 
vivid pictures of modern life, in phases 
as numerous as are the characters of the 
narrative. 

There is a lesson in “ Araby,” and 
that a powerful one ; but there is, first 
and always, the story itself, vital and 
human, the story of an unusual passion, 
in which the instinct of the primitive 
savage and the conditions of our twen- 
tieth-century civilization meet and war. 
The author has achieved a work of fic- 
tion at once absolutely distinctive and 
wholly fascinating. 

PBOFUSEIiY Il-IiUSTHATED BIT C. J. BlTDD 
l^MO, 


Ube Smart Set iPubUsbfng Co. 

452 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


Th 


H 


Middle Cours 


A CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE 


H 


BY 

Mrs. Poultney Bigelow 

A Powerful Story of Society, Cleverly Told 

The story concerns itself with a beauti- 
ful London society woman, whose husband 
is unsympathetic and even brutal, and 
who becomes sensationally involved, al- 
though innocent, with a much lionized 
sculptor, through a jealous woman’s mali- 
cious gossip. 

Illustrated by C. B. Currier 
Crown 8 vo, $1.50 


THE SMART SET PUBLISHING CO. 

452 Fifth Avenue, New York 


0. B. Burgin 

AUTHOR OF “TAMALYN’S GHOST,” ETC. 

THE SHUTTERS OF SH^ENCE 

The Momance of a Trappiat 

V 

This book contains a description, at once 
sane and vivid, sympathetic and critical, of 
an institution the very name of which exer- 
cises a mysterious fascination on people of 
all the shades of thought — the Trappist Mon- 
astery of Mahota. . . . This is, in many 
respects, a capital novel. . . . Here is an 
interesting, amiable, amusing book, never 
absurd and never dull, in many ways orig- 
inal, and full of good mental cheer. 

— Tfee London Times, 

IIXT78TBATBS BT liOUIS AlKBX 

Cbown 8vo, $1.60 

Ube Smart Set pubUsbing Co, 

462 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


arcbibaI^ le^re 


THE TRIFLER 

A Delightful Love Comedy 

V 

This is not a historical novel, but a love 
story, with living characters, natural scenes, 
brilliant dialogue. A little war of politics 
is woven in with the love element and a 
dramatic denouement develops. It will 
prove the most entertaining book of the 
year. 

The incidents and situations follow one 
another in such rapid succession that the 
reader marvels at the author’s inventive 
genius. A climax of no little power is 
finally reached, and one tragic note is 
struck. The novel of crisp and brilliant 
dialogue is seldom one with depth of plot 
and rapidity of action as well. ‘ ‘ The 
Trifler ” is such a story, and its powers of 
entertainment can hardly be overestimated. 
Among the books of the year none will be 
more eagerly read. 

ILLUSTRATEJD BY AKCHIE GUNW 

Crown 8vo, $ 1.60 


Zbc Smart Set pubUsbing Co. 

452 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


JSg Sobn H). Barry 

AUTHOR OF “A DAUGHTER OF THESPIS” 


THE 

CONGRESSMAN’S WIFE 

A Story of American Politics 

V 

The main motif is political, a new motif, 
by the way, that is beginning to supersede 
the historical, for which let us give thanks. 
The scenes are laid first in Washington and 
then in New York, Congressman Briggs 
representing a metropolitan district ; he 
gets into the toils of a lobbyist, Franklin 
West, and getting out of the toils costs him 
his re-election. Mr. Barry’s knowledge of 
the ^‘inside” of Washington life is most 
accurate. 

N. Y. An excellent piece of fiction.” 

N. Y. Mail and Express . — “ Mr. Barry . . . has all the 
material required for a strong play of present-day American 
life and manners.” 

Buffalo Courier.— ^ It is a fascinating story of political and 
social life in New York and Washington.” 

Albany Arffus . — “One of the strongest and most subtle 
studies of political and social Washington that has ever been 
written.” 

IBBUSTKATED BT ROLBIBr KiBBT 
CKOWN 8 VO, ^ 1.60 


Ebe Smart Set pubUsbing Co. 

462 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


Bi? Xouise Minter 


A Book That Will. Bive 


HEARTS AFLAME 

An Intensely Dramatic Love Story 
of New York Society 

V 

New York Press. — “The popularity of this story 
is assured.” 

New York Sun. — “We do not doubt that thousands 
will read it eagerly.” 

Boston Globe. — “ There are no irksome passages in 
the novel ; ... it is strong and remarkably fascin- 
ating. ” 

W ashing ton Post. — ‘ ‘ A clever satire on the society 
of the leisure class of New York, attractively pre- 
sented.” 

St. Louis Republic. — “‘Hearts Aflame* is a pic- 
ture of . . . real life.” 

Nashville American. — “‘Hearts Aflame* is a 
clever satirical story; one that will be read with 
amusement and furnish basis for some thought.’* 

Columbus Press. — “From the first sentence to the 
last the story is strong and fascinating.** 

Detroit Free Press. — “A gentle, courteous satire; 
. . . the author, Louise Winter, has a light, grace- 
ful touch and keeps interest on the alert up to the 
denouement.*’ 

InnrrsTRATED bt Abchie Gunn $1.60 


XTbe Smart Set pubUsbing Co. 

462 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


J6i 2 jebwarb S. IDan Xile 


AN IMMEDIATE SUCCESS 


Perkins, the Fakeer 

An Amusing Travesty on ILeincarnation 

V 

A YANKEE, after long residence in 
the East, has become an adept in magi- 
cal arts, and on his return to America 
amuses himself by occult pranks that 
involve innocent persons in appalling 
dilemmas. The author’s humor is dis- 
tinctive’ and unfailing; the plot is ab- 
sorbing. The book does not contain a 
dull line or a sad one. 

New York Sun. — “ The reader may be assured 
that he will be amused and entertained.” 

.New York American. — “More than witty and 
more than weird, while it combines both these qual- 
ities and many more.” 

Philadelphia Record. — “ Cleverly told, and the vol- 
ume capably enacts its allotted r 61 e of furnishing 
light entertainment for the reader. ” 

St. Louis Republic. — “ A laugh invariably accom- 
panies the reading of nearly every paragraph” 

Town Topics. — “ I hailed them with joy for their 
originality and irresistible drollery.” 

InnrrsTBATED bt Ht. Mayeb $1.00 Net 


Ube Smart Set pubUsbfng Co. 

452 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 


ifoelen /iDilecete 

AUTHOR OF “MISS VANDELEUR, PIRATE*' 


THE 

CAREER OF MRS. OSBORNE 

A SATIRE 

V 

This novel narrates the adventures of 
two charming young women who escape 
from tiresome country relations and take 
an apartment in London under the fictitious 
chaperonage of Mrs. Osbornf. Their es- 
capades, their many devices to avoid detec- 
tion, and their final disposition of Mrs. 
Osborne, are highly diverting. 

Il-IiTJSTBATBir BY BATABD JONBS 

'Paper ^ SOc, Special Cloth Edition^ 75c. 

Ube Smart Set publisbing Co. 

452 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 



OCT IS 1904 








